No activities today. Just a day to ourselves. We took a little walk with Sophie in a stroller provided by the hotel this morning. Didn't cross any major streets. Just toured a local food market & some local shops. Picked up a red silk traditional Chinese-style dress (cheongsam) for Sophie. Unfortunately, she probably won't be able to wear for at least another year, but it was so beautiful & so cheap for silk. 80 yuan which is less than $10.
We received a copy of Sophie's finding ad today with a much younger picture of Sophie than we've seen before. It still looks like her! It says she has a fair face and very little hair. Also received Sophie's Chinese passport today. However, it's still in her Chinese name. We had to book her flight back to the U.S. under her Chinese name since that's the name on her passport.
We leave the hotel at 8 a.m. tomorrow to fly to Guangzhou and check into the White Swan Hotel. We knew that the White Swan was going to be shutting down for renovations later this year. Learned from our guide yesterday that it will be closed for one year & will reopen as a "suite" hotel and will no longer cater to parents of adopted children. The room rates will triple!
Sophie tried juice for the first time today, white grape, & she liked it. Last night for dinner, we made her the Gerber rice cereal we brought from home & she ate it up too. So that's good news that she's already adjusting to the type of food that we can feed her at home. Up to now, her favorite food is a local dish called congee, basically a very weak rice porridge. We don't have any idea how to make that at home for her, so we're trying to wean her from it & onto rice cereal.
